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An all-star panel of Internet academics, activists, and entrepreneurs gathered at the Personal Democracy Forum in New York today to launch Internet for Everyone, a campaign calling for a national broadband policy to bridge the "digital divide." The group—the members on hand today included such luminaries as Vint Cerf, Lawrence Lessig, Jonathan Zittrain, and Tim Wu—is urging political action to provide universal, affordable high-speed broadband in the United States.

Josh Silver, executive director of Free Press, introduced the initiative, saying it was "outrageous" that "the country that invented the Internet" ranked 15th in broadband penetration at last count (a ranking that has been disputed) and has failed to provide any broadband options for some 20 million Americans living in rural areas. "Closing the broadband digital divide," said Silver, "must be a national priority." According to Silver, the campaign would not support or oppose specific legislation, but instead would champion four core principles: Access (fat pipes in every home), choice (real competition between providers), openness (this appears to be a code word for some flavor of 'Net neutrality), and innovation (job creation and economic growth). As a first step, Silver announced that the group would hold a series of public fora to solicit ideas and encourage public involvement.

The press conference brought together some unlikely allies. "This is the first time in our history that we have tried to build fundamental infrastructure on the basis of a Neanderthal philosophy," announced Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig, "which is that we don't need government to do it." Seated next to Lessig was David All, founder of the Republican fundraising site Slatecard—and normally a proponent of that "Neanderthal" philosophy. All later argued for wider broadband access as a means of fostering the next generation of tech entrepreneurs.

Tim Wu makes a point

Also present were members Brad Burnham of Union Square Ventures, Green for All president Van Jones, and Zipcar founder Robin Chase, who argued that pervasive high-speed broadband was not only a potential boon to the economy, but increasingly a requirement for full participation in American society. "Maybe it's not as basic as water," said Chase, "but it's definitely as basic as hot water." Jones argued that connectivity could, quite literally, be a matter of life and death, noting that during the recent California wildfires, those with timely access to information were able to escape, while those without, "mostly Latino farm workers, were burned alive." He also cited the role of the Internet in promoting equality of opportunity: "It's hard to find a job you don't know about."

Federal Communications Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, who declared himself a "frustrated policymaker," said it was clear that "what we're doing in Washington today isn't working." He echoed his own remarks from earlier in the day, when he had argued that private investment in broadband deployment would be inefficiently low because connectivity generates externalities not captured by those who own the pipes—among them, access to government and more widespread capacity for collective action. Indeed, Michael Winship, president of the Writers Guild of America East, cited the importance of the Internet in building public support for last year's writers' strike.

Jonathan Zittrain addresses the group

Legal scholars Jonathan Zittrain and Tim Wu stressed what Zittrain called the "weird" economics of providing high-speed Internet. Initially, said Zittrain, cost increases are commensurate with the scale of the network, until "suddenly it's free, because you're peering." But in practice, said Wu, drawing an analogy to the energy crisis, broadband in the U.S. is "controlled by a tiny cartel." Nevertheless, Vint Cerf—who in addition to being known as the "father of the Internet" authored the manifesto "The Internet Is for Everyone"—stressed that the new rules for broadband should not resemble "the vertical regulation of the past."

All this may have a whiff of "and a pony" about it: Nobody is going to oppose universal, cheap, fast Internet access—but how long will this motley crew speak with a unified voice when it comes to the nitty-gritty of policymaking? I put the question to Zittrain after the press conference, and he allowed that consensus is less likely the further one gets from these pleasing generalities. The coalition's role, he suggested, will primarily consist of focusing public attention on the issue—and on instances of telecom rent-seeking that might otherwise slide under the radar.